Did retailers really abandon hauls and unboxing for connected TV? Not on the public record. I found no retailer announcement that says so. What the evidence shows is more useful: retailers pull back on hauls and unboxing as standalone, feed-only deliverables, while the same creators and formats get repurposed for CTV. Here is what that means for your creator budget.
First, a reality check on the premise
Treat “retailers are quitting hauls” as a hypothesis, not a fact. I could not verify a documented, sector-wide retreat, and you shouldn’t cut haul budgets on a rumor.
The documented movement runs the other way. Retail media networks are folding creators into their ad products, and CTV owners are buying creator content. If you see haul volume dropping in a retailer’s own social feed, the likelier cause is that spend moved to a different placement, not that creators lost value.
Look at Best Buy’s retail media pitch. Its creator program began as a storefront play where tech creators curated products and earned commission. It is now evolving so that advertisers can work with creators through it, with content made for channels like TikTok Shop and CTV. Walmart’s $2.3 billion Vizio purchase in 2024 gave it owned and operated CTV supply.
Creators are not leaving the retail plan. They are being wired into a bigger one.
Why CTV and creator content are converging
CTV is a hungry channel. Performance-style campaigns need far more creative variants than a linear TV buy ever did, and creator-style video is cheap to iterate. That is the whole logic.
According to Digiday’s reporting, Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Netflix are all expanding creator offerings or producing original creator content as brands raise spending on both channels. The same Digiday piece cites eMarketer projecting that U.S. brands will spend $13.7 billion annually on influencer marketing by 2027.
Then there is the format bridge. Digiday also covered CTV players importing social assets. In a test commissioned by LG Ad Solutions for an unnamed brand, a campaign using Social Sync produced a 22% lift in brand awareness and a 26.1% lift in consideration. One vendor-commissioned test is not proof for your category, but it shows why buyers are experimenting.
The question is no longer “creator or CTV?” It is “which creator assets earn a second life on the big screen, and who owns the rights to run them there?”
What actually changes for hauls and unboxing
Here is my read, and it is an inference, not a reported fact. Hauls and unboxings are the most commoditized creator formats. Everyone has seen a thousand of them. A feed-native haul that shows a shelf of products with no point of view is the easiest line to trim when budgets tighten.
But unboxing itself is not dead. The product reveal survives. The generic haul wrapper around it is what loses ground.
So the practical shift looks like this:
- Fewer one-off haul posts paid as flat-fee deliverables with no reuse plan.
- More modular footage: hooks, reveals and demos shot so they can be cut into 15 and 30-second spots.
- Creators briefed on two surfaces: the phone feed and the living-room screen.
Is creator spend shrinking? The data says no
Short answer: no. The IAB’s creator economy report projects U.S. creator ad spend reaching $37 billion in 2025, up 26% year over year, with $44 billion expected in 2026. The same IAB report says 48% of creator ad buyers now consider creators a “must buy.”
That is a budget category growing, not retreating. What is changing is where inside the category the money lands. Expect dollars to flow toward formats with reuse value and measurable outcomes. For the operational side of that shift, see our piece on micro influencer budgets.
The three risks nobody budgets for
Rights creep
A creator’s haul licensed for organic posting is not licensed for a CTV flight. Paid TV-style placement is a different use, and it should be priced like one. Our guide to creator content licensing covers how to structure that, and distribution APIs are making rights tracking less manual.
Measurement mismatch
Social metrics (views, saves) do not translate to CTV metrics (reach, completion, lift). If you move creator assets across both, you need a shared yardstick before you scale. Otherwise you will fund the channel with the best-looking dashboard, not the best return. We unpack the gap in UGC creator ROI proof.
Creative fatigue
Pushing the same unboxing clip to a TV audience at high frequency burns it out fast. Plan variant volume up front.
How to rebalance a creator budget without guessing
Do not do a big reallocation off a trend piece, including this one. Run a staged test instead.
- Audit your haul and unboxing spend. Tag every deliverable by format, fee, and whether you hold paid-media rights.
- Pick two or three assets with strong organic results. Rank them by saves and conversion, not views alone.
- Negotiate a paid-use add-on for those creators covering CTV, with a defined term and fee.
- Run a matched-market test. Compare CTV-extended creator creative against your standard spot, using brand lift or sales lift as the judge.
- Reinvest only what proves out. Keep a floor of creator spend on formats that clearly drive commerce, such as shoppable and live formats. Our look at hybrid pay and tracking helps here.
One more thing. Interactive and shoppable CTV is growing from a small base. Digiday reports that Fubo’s media spending on interactive formats rose 218% versus 2024. Small base, fast climb. Worth a pilot, not a bet-the-budget move.
FAQs
Are retailers really cutting haul and unboxing content?
I could not find a verified, sector-wide announcement of that. What is documented is retailers like Best Buy pairing creator content with TikTok Shop and CTV. Generic hauls may be getting less budget, but the evidence points to reallocation, not retreat.
Why are retailers investing in CTV?
Owned or partnered CTV supply lets retailers connect TV ads to purchase data and make advertiser dollars work harder. Walmart’s Vizio acquisition and Best Buy’s CTV-centered retail media pitch both reflect that logic.
Does CTV investment mean creator budgets will shrink?
Not by default. The IAB projects creator ad spend to keep growing, and CTV platforms are actively buying creator content. The risk is to low-reuse, flat-fee formats, not to creators as a category.
Can I run a creator’s unboxing video as a CTV ad?
Only if your contract covers it. Organic posting rights rarely extend to paid TV-style placement. Negotiate a separate paid-use term, fee and duration, and confirm technical specs for TV delivery.
How should I measure creator content on CTV?
Use brand lift, sales lift or matched-market tests rather than social engagement. Set the comparison against your standard CTV creative before launch so the result is credible.
What should marketers do first?
Audit current haul and unboxing deliverables for rights, reuse potential and conversion data. That audit tells you what to renegotiate before you move any money.
Next step: pull your last quarter of haul and unboxing contracts this week, flag every one without paid-media rights, and renegotiate those for the three best performers before you fund a CTV test.
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